Broken and Healed

Our all-loving God does not desire that we seek suffering to become holy, but he does desire that we surrender to him in our suffering so that in our brokenness, his mercy can make us whole again. In being broken open by suffering, we are offered the opportunity to let those open spaces be filled with the mercy and compassion of our God, and in the depth of that mercy to be moved to love him more deeply. Surrendering to suffering is the path we walk backwards through the pain of the fall toward the life of Eden.

—from When We Were Eve: Uncovering the Woman God Created You to Be

✞Quote "Reading the Holy Scriptures confers two benefits. It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man's attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God." — St. Isidore of Seville

✞ MEDITATION OF THE DAY "Man was created for a certain end. This end is to praise, to reverence and to serve the Lord his God and by this means to arrive at eternal salvation. All other beings and objects that surround us on the earth were created for the benefit of man and to be useful to him, as means to his final end; hence his obligation to use, or to abstain from the use of, these creatures, according as they bring him nearer to that end, or tend to separate him from it." — St. Ignatius of Loyola, p.18 AN EXCERPT FROM The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius

✞ VERSE OF THE DAY "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8

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Saint Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi

(April 2, 1566 – May 25, 1607)

Mystical ecstasy is the elevation of the spirit to God in such a way that the person is aware of this union with God while both internal and external senses are detached from the sensible world. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi was so generously given this special gift of God that she is called the "ecstatic saint."

Catherine de' Pazzi was born into a noble family in Florence in 1566. The normal course would have been for her to have married into wealth and enjoyed comfort, but Catherine chose to follow her own path. At 9, she learned to meditate from the family confessor. She made her first Communion at the then-early age of 10, and made a vow of virginity one month later. At 16, Catherine entered the Carmelite convent in Florence because she could receive Communion daily there.

Catherine had taken the name Mary Magdalene and had been a novice for a year when she became critically ill. Death seemed near, so her superiors let her make her profession of vows in a private ceremony from a cot in the chapel. Immediately after, Mary Magdalene fell into an ecstasy that lasted about two hours. This was repeated after Communion on the following 40 mornings. These ecstasies were rich experiences of union with God and contained marvelous insights into divine truths.

As a safeguard against deception and to preserve the revelations, her confessor asked Mary Magdalene to dictate her experiences to sister secretaries. Over the next six years, five large volumes were filled. The first three books record ecstasies from May of 1584 through Pentecost week the following year. This week was a preparation for a severe five-year trial. The fourth book records that trial and the fifth is a collection of letters concerning reform and renewal. Another book, Admonitions, is a collection of her sayings arising from her experiences in the formation of women religious.

The extraordinary was ordinary for this saint. She read the thoughts of others and predicted future events. During her lifetime, Mary Magdalene appeared to several persons in distant places and cured a number of sick people.

It would be easy to dwell on the ecstasies and pretend that Mary Magdalene only had spiritual highs. This is far from true. It seems that God permitted her this special closeness to prepare her for the five years of desolation that followed when she experienced spiritual dryness. She was plunged into a state of darkness in which she saw nothing but what was horrible in herself and all around her. She had violent temptations and endured great physical suffering. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi died in 1607 at age 41, and was canonized in 1669. Her Liturgical Feast Day is May 25.

Reflection Intimate union, God's gift to mystics, is a reminder to all of us of the eternal happiness of union he wishes to give us. The cause of mystical ecstasy in this life is the Holy Spirit, working through spiritual gifts. The ecstasy occurs because of the weakness of the body and its powers to withstand the divine illumination, but as the body is purified and strengthened, ecstasy no longer occurs. See Teresa of Avila's Interior Castle, and John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul, for more about various aspects of ecstasies.

Thursday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

Reading 1 Jas 5:1-6

Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 49:14-15ab, 15cd-16, 17-18, 19-20 R. (Matthew 5:3) Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! This is the way of those whose trust is folly, the end of those contented with their lot: Like sheep they are herded into the nether world; death is their shepherd and the upright rule over them.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! Quickly their form is consumed; the nether world is their palace. But God will redeem me from the power of the nether world by receiving me.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! Fear not when a man grows rich, when the wealth of his house becomes great, For when he dies, he shall take none of it; his wealth shall not follow him down.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! Though in his lifetime he counted himself blessed, "They will praise you for doing well for yourself," He shall join the circle of his forebears who shall never more see light.

R. Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs!

Alleluia See 1 Thes 2:13 R. Alleluia, alleluia. Receive the word of God, not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God. R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 9:41-50

Jesus said to his disciples: "Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut if off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

"Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor? Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another."

Meditation: Mark 9:41-50

Keep salt in yourselves and you will have peace with one another. (Mark 9:50)

This is one of those puzzling passages of Scripture that needs a lot of unpacking. How can salt keep us at peace with each other? What is Gehenna? Should we really cut off our hands? Let's do a short Bible study to try to understand what Jesus is saying. The best way to do this is by working our way up from the bottom of this passage.

First, by saying that everyone will be "salted" with fire, Jesus is pointing to the Jewish tradition of sprinkling a little bit of salt on all their burnt grain offerings (Leviticus 2:13). In other words, keep offering yourselves to the Lord as a "living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1). Keep letting his love burn away your sin.

Second, Jesus warns the disciples about the fires of Gehenna (Mark 9:47). Gehenna was a notorious place called the "Valley of Slaughter," where the Jews' ancestors followed the pagans around them by practicing child sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:6; 7:30-33).

Third, Jesus tells the disciples to lop off their own hands and feet and pluck out their eyes so that they don't end up in Gehenna. He is exaggerating, of course, but only because he wants to get across how serious the situation is.

So if we put all of this together, we can see Jesus telling his disciples, Offer yourself to the Lord as a sacrifice; let him burn away your sin. That way, your sin won't be able to hurt, or "burn," the people around you.

This little exercise shows us how hard it can be to understand some Scripture passages. It also shows how closely connected the New Testament is to the Old Testament. Finally, it shows how helpful it is to have a good study Bible or commentary available to us. The footnotes in our Bible and the entries in a commentary can shed light on important passages so that we don't stumble over them or miss out on some new insight the Holy Spirit wants to give us.

Isn't it wonderful that God chooses to speak to us through our study as well as our prayer? He has given us the beautiful gift of our intellect; let's use it to glorify him and to draw closer to him.

"Holy Spirit, open my mind and my heart together so that I can hear your voice in Scripture."

James 5:1-6 Psalm 49:14-20

my2cents: "Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries." Our country is rich. Many countries are rich. This Holy Scripture calls on the rich to weep, and to wail for what is about to come, what is pending anyhow, if, we do not heed His voice. The voice of Christ. The ending verse says "You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance." How does this happen? The rich take over. You place yourself above Him who is asking for us to step down...or else. The atheistic and secularistic community calls on the Lord to step down, accusing Him of being bad, "how can a good god send people to hell?" And so the devil feeds lies to the community until they accuse and condemn the righteous to death. It all starts with a lie, a doubt, and then, suddenly, the same old trick happens, a trick from the darkness, leading for a trip into darkness. If you are rich, it means you feel secure, and have power. But we have absolutely no power, except what God has given us.

" Blessed are the poor in spirit; the Kingdom of heaven is theirs! This is the way of those whose trust is folly, the end of those contented with their lot: Like sheep they are herded into the nether world; death is their shepherd and the upright rule over them." And here's another old new lie from the darkness "there is no hell". And so the richness of this lie is the folly that people trust, trusting the darkness.

Our Lord speaks: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." If you knew what your sinful teachings cause, you would want to put a noose on your own neck. If you only knew what it meant to stand in God's presence, you would want to be purified, you would want fire. And so there are two fires we can choose...God's fire, the salt, or the fire of eternal damnation. Our Lord said "Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if salt becomes insipid, with what will you restore its flavor?" We have salt, it is the fire of the Holy Spirit. What if this fire He gives becomes insipid? What is insipid? It lacks flavor, no vigor, no interest. It's like I hand you a rice crispy treat and you take it and never eat it, and years later it is hard, lost flavors, its like eating cardboard or styrofoam. If you ate styrofoam you would spit it out, right? What are we giving God to eat? What are we feeding the world? Tasteless junk? The lastfruits instead of firstfruits? Yes. On the most part, that's what we do. Tithing is a simple example. An usher said last week that he saw a man once with a wad of cash, thumbed through the 100 dollar bills, then the 20's, and the 5's, and put in a few 1 dollar bills. When we plan our lives, we plan it all around work and ourselves. The god of money is ugly. It is the cause even of recent murders in churches in some countries. Richness of the world is emptiness. Richness of the world is that which does nothing for God...coming up empty. There are offerings we can offer to God. First fruit? Our heart. From there, the fire, the vigor, the courage and love will begin to grow and glow. Many, most, would dare say they believe in some God out there. Many do not really seek Him. They settle, and their fire can become insipid. Until. Until someone like you comes into their lives to bring back the flavor. To bring back life into the dead. To help life come back into life....Christ.

We need the Holy Spirit in our lives. Why? Because it is what gives life. The other day I thought "wow, how God makes a day much more beautiful". With Him, everything is amazing. Without Him....darkness prevails. Let us bring everyone to amazement. A true love of God! Much is expected of you...child of GOD!

adrian

For questions or comments contact Adrian@going4th.com. For more go to www.Going4th.com